Thursday, February 28, 2013

"dreadedserious cutbacksdire predictionsjob killingreduce the size of the military sharplyreal painjobs lostpeople going hungryor uninsuredor bothodious cuts made with a chainsawlong delays at airportsthe country left open to terroriststens of thousands of children kicked out of preschooltens of thousands more left unvaccinatedcontaminated meat left uninspectedsharp cuts to unemployment benefitsdoomsday scenarios"

Get the point? To Hell in many handbaskets.

Here's a little of my story:

After the Navy I got hired into health care as one of seven directors reporting to an HR VP.

Each year, every year of my 10 years there, we were asked to do more with less. If someone left, we had to justify back filling their position. There was never an automatic replacement authorized. Economize and cut were all we really knew. By the time I left I was one of 3 directors where there used to be seven.

My next job started swimmingly. I was resourced to the hilt in truth. I got to build. Within a couple of years the build had to be disassembled, valuable resources had to go. People were laid off. No more were hired. Do more with less. My budget at the end was probably a quarter of what it was when I started. But we never understood that we could stop doing what we were doing when we were resourced.

Then I got laid off. A generous severence package to be sure, but after four months my former employer breeched the contract and found a way to stiff me to the tune of $85-100K. Try as I might legally they beat me because they were willing to fight me in the sewer where I could not go. They beat me.

Unemployed for a year. Obama's deal on COBRA payments for healthcare were some help. Unemployment insurance paid me $330 per week. Due to family circumstances I would not leave the area for a job. My choice, my family. I was a father and that was that. I needed to be a father to my son.

We robbed Peter to pay Paul. We lived off money taken from my retirement account. We maxed out a credit card paying for health insurance and other expenses.

When I did finally secure employment after a year I made 43% less in salary than my previous position. I was welcomed to that position with the notice that I would have to take 8 days off in the next 4 months without pay. (A State "furlough" policy in effect.) I made 27% less than my starting salary at my previous employer seven years earlier.

Do you think my family and I were required to make do with less over the past 4 years?

I can find no sympathy whatsoever for anyone that will "suffer" under the blunt mallet of these sequestration cuts that are coming. Some households have been affected in the past 5 years way worse than mine was. I am certain of that. And mine is not a pretty picture is it?

Whatever agencies are affected, including our military, and what ever people are affected by those agency cuts, they have to do what is necessary to adjust to what are, in truth, infentesimal cuts. Adjust. Your cuts are not 43%. Your cuts are not 27%. Most of you will still have jobs. I have not an ounce of sympathy. I am amazed at how we are being told cutting at the Federal level will bring catastrophy at some local level. 20 teachers in Rinkydinkville will lose their jobs! This is indicitive of the long long arm of Washington everywhere. It's also indicitive of the hyperbole flying like manure in a horse barn. That is a post for another day.

Businesses are requied to do more with less all the time. Households are forced to economize and live within their means. That is the way it is. We get no bailouts. All I hear these days is how all the goverment will have to do less with less. That's their only solution. That's pitiful too.

Global E.

All Yaw'l

Random Musings

I hate to admit it, but most of the time I'm about as much of a sheep as everyone else. E.

“Everybody has a plan, until they get hit.” Mike Tyson

"Beginning to wear tassels on your shoes just might be the beginning of the end." E.

In a republic, politician's posteriors are for kicking, not kissing. Vox Day

Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the leather restraints.Yolanda Savage

I'd visit this blog even if it weren't mine. E.

I think I need a 3-5 year break from Garrison Keillor's voice. E.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.Albert Einstein

If you call yourself a "change agent" you're probably not. E.Does it ever irritate anyone else that Alex Trebek sometimes acts like he really knows all the answers in Jeopardy, but all he really knows are the answers he holds in his hand?E.

I was into being into things before they got popular before being into things before they got popular got popular. Dan Wineman

I hope for a competent president.Shelby Steele

The idea that atoms exist and stick together in Angelina Jolie shaped clumps is supernatural enough for me to entertain the idea of a creator.

Moth

"I’m a blogger, which tells you about all you need to know on the subject of my credibility."Michael Spencer (R.I.P)

(Ditto)E.

"Twitter is the hula-hoop du jour." The Bingster

You wanna hear wrong? Anyone saying it is "sourdough" if it is not baked in the Bay Area of Northern California, preferably San Francisco.E.

“

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

And of course we are herd animals with a formidable tendency to attach ourselves to groups—it doesn’t much matter what groups—and fight other groups. Thus football teams, bowling clubs, political parties, and wars. Patriotism is exactly the instinct that makes people cheer frantically for the Steelers against the Packers, and armies are just Crips and Bloods with more elaborate switch-blades. Fred Reed

"I can't wait to get to a pre-politically correct time."

Andrew Breitbart

I like trees and grass as much as the next guy but can't we engage in environmental improvements without the end of the world looking over our shoulder?Kurt Harden

"Environment Yes, Hysteria No."

From A Libertarian Perspective:Well, since the Republicans are the party of pretend small government, and the Democrats are the party of spending like a Beverly Hills heiress to an oil fortune, I see a lot to be happy about in regard to a party for actual small government that wants us to live by Elvis' words, "Do what's right for you, as long as it don't hurt no one."Amy Alkon, The Advice Godless

Eventually I stray fromeveryparty(s) line.E.

I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.